


Between This One and the Next

by MistyF



Category: Code Vein (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Expanding Canon, F/M, Human/Monster Romance, Pining, Plot Spoilers, Scene from another PoV, confession flake out, good ending, speculating with lore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:54:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27109852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MistyF/pseuds/MistyF
Summary: Following the battle with The Successor of the Claw, Emily and Yakumo are reunited. However, the moment can't last forever and there are so many things that need to be said...
Relationships: Emily Sue/Yakumo Shinonome
Kudos: 5





	Between This One and the Next

**Author's Note:**

> Again, this contains significant spoilers for the game's plot. You have been warned.
> 
> This started as a prompt for teratophilia (i.e. attraction to monsters) and I just happened to finish a segment of the game that struck me as inspiration for a piece. It seemed like an opportunity to leverage a unique viewpoint that got a little shafted by anime tropes. It was also a chance to expand on what is a rather simple moment mechanically (Press X to Restore Memory) and I can never pass up on those opportunities.
> 
> Anyway, enjoy!

This had been her last chance to tell him, and she still couldn't bring herself to confess her feelings. That regret suffused Emily's entire being as the last vestiges of her self-awareness dimmed. One fatal injury after another had forced her body to disperse countless times during Operation Queenslayer, but dying this time was... _different_. The darkness had not been so complete before, so absolute. However, something about that was comforting. The end meant there would be no more thirst, no more struggle. There would only be oblivion. 

Yet, knowing that Yakumo was alive _and_ that she would never see him again was more painful than any experiment Mido might have performed on her. If only... If only she had one more chance...

As if in response to that plea, the face of the mysterious woman who had been with Yakumo flashed in Emily's mind. Without any obvious explanation, Emily was experiencing her final moments again from another angle. Seemingly invisible to the others, Emily heard her last words once more. 

"Yakumo, I've always…"

Too embarrassed to watch herself fail again, Emily turned away. That woman was staring at her. Despite her mismatched eyes, her subtle expression filled Emily with a sense of empathy so overwhelming that it brought tears to the young woman's eyes. At the same time, there was something powerful about the woman's heterochromatic gaze, something commanding. 

She wanted to look elsewhere, but the inhuman blue-on-black coloration of her left eye held Emily's gaze. The ring of deep blue grew larger in her field of vision as the darkness behind it spread to the edges of her sight. It was as if she were being drawn in by that eye. At that moment, Emily experienced a surge of reverence that felt just as fundamental to her existence as a revenant as the bloodthirst.

Meanwhile, off to the side, Yakumo blustered to cover up his emotions. Even without looking, Emily could tell he was crushed by what had happened. No doubt he had hoped they could save her somehow, but she had become a delicate tower of ash instead. One by one, the others touched Yakumo's shoulder and then left through an impossible door in the darkness. After a moment, he followed, too. Cursed with no recourse, he could do nothing but leave her behind.

Now she was alone with the burned-out figure that looked like her. Was this her fate? To be forced to look at this shattered, broken remnant of herself for all eternity? Except, she realized, she wasn't alone.

The mysterious woman had remained. Instead of following the others, she had walked up to the statue of Emily. She cut her palm on the edge of her massive sword. In the dark of that final dream, the blue part of her left eye began to glow as she reached out in a gesture of comfort. As she stood there, she whispered something...

"Fear not, Scathach. Instead,  _ remember _ …" 

With a feeling like cracking her knuckles, only in her mind, Emily suddenly remembered the face of The Queen and how she had those same blue-on-black eyes. Who  _ was _ this person? Why was she with Yakumo? 

Much as Emily wanted answers, the only insight she gained came from the woman caressing her husk's petrified cheek. Despite being all but gone, Emily felt the touch as clear as day. Overwhelmed and unable to hold back her emotions any longer, she began to sob. 

When was the last time she had felt another's caring touch? Since before Yakumo had fallen to the horrors? Probably. There was little tenderness after she awakened early. Her becoming a Successor had been filled with dreadful experiments at Mido's hands. On top of that, Emily could not recall how long she had been sealed inside her Crypt, alone, with her fears and her thirst.

Not that visitors would have mattered all that much. Even if her mind had endured, even if her personality had persisted, she would have been transformed by the relic all the same. On some level, she had made the choice to become a towering, fox-like creature while she lived out her life as a Successor to The Queen. On others, it was inevitable. As the bearer of The Queen's claw, it was almost a given she would become some sort of beast as the relic twisted her recoveries. So she made the monster-filled stories Yakumo used to share central to her being. Of them, her favorite was one about a mischievous fox goddess who showed prideful men the folly of their ways. All things considered, Emily had been proud of the way it had turned out. 

Well, okay. Maybe she had gone a little overboard in a few places...

Still... she wished there was a way to separate herself from the titanium armor that had eventually fused to her body as she endured dispersal after dispersal as while fighting to synchronize with the relic. As regret piled upon regret, Emily's sobbing grew worse.

In an echo of those pained tears, the woman's blood flowed down the ashen ruin of Emily's remaining humanity. Emily could feel it calling to her as it spread; its whisper siphoning off her frustration and sorrow. The blue-tinged fluid continued its descent, and the faded grey that had consumed Emily regained its lost vibrancy. What had been crumbling powder became whole once more.

Only The Queen's blood had been able to restore a revenant like that. Was this woman also a Successor? Even if that were the case, why could Emily feel her presence becoming a part of her? What was going to happen now? What was--

In a flash, Emily was no longer looking at the scene from outside of herself. An aspect of herself she had thought lost was her’s again. 

The woman's hand was warm on her cheek, and Emily leaned into it without a thought. That moment of repose was interrupted quite suddenly as Emily experienced a thump in her chest that staggered her. It was like the kick of regeneration, but even more profound. All around, the darkness was growing brighter. The woman smiled and pushed Emily backward. 

As she tumbled, there was a rush of light and a loud ringing. Then, as if she had simply dozed off, the familiar heat on her titanium armor returned. The darkness was chased away by the city-wide fire she had ignited during her mutation. Once again, she was looking out through the filter mask which had been warped by the corrupting influence of the relic she carried in her chest. 

Moreover, she was... alive? Alive  _ and  _ aware. For the first time in ages.  _ How? _

Not that she had much time to grapple with this new development. Yakumo was walking towards her. Seeing him alive and well made her breath catch. That he couldn't hide the joy on his face at seeing her made her feel warm--which quite a feat considering her blood was pretty much fire at this point.

He hadn't changed one bit. Same as the day they first met, she could read his thoughts just through his expressions. To her, it was obvious that her being an eight-foot-tall fox-like monster didn't matter to him. All that mattered was that she was alive and they had found each other again.

Being alive meant she had another chance. This time... This time she would tell him.

Only she couldn't. How could she? The One With The Blood might have restored her for now, but the relic's power was unending. It craved for blood with a thirst that could never be satisfied. Eventually, she would lose herself again and then... And then...

So she lied and, as had happened before, he didn't seem to notice. Or, she realized, he already knew. Though if that was the case, he sure did a lousy job showing her understood what she meant. 

"Well, then. I'll be back with all the onigiri you can eat, yeah?"

"Yeah, I'd love that." Now, if only she had any idea  _ how _ that was going to work...


End file.
